Five break points saved out of six
Teodora Kostovic became the first player into the quarter-finals of the SP Open in Sao Paulo, beating ninth seed Darja Semenistaja 6-4, 6-1 earlier today. The Serbian is 19 and had never reached a quarter-final at WTA Tour level before.
The number that explains the scoreline is six. Kostovic faced six break points across the match and saved five of them. Semenistaja converted once, in a first set that stayed close, and then lost the second in four games.
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A draw still catching up with itself
Kostovic reached the last eight on a day when most of the field was still finishing the first round. Rain had pushed the schedule back in Sao Paulo, so while the Serbian was winning a second-round match, several seeds were only opening their tournaments.
Second seed Paula Badosa came through, along with third seed Solana Sierra, fourth seed Anna Blinkova, fifth seed Eva Lys, seventh seed Kaitlin Quevedo and eighth seed Alina Charaeva. The exception was sixth seed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, beaten 7-5, 6-1 by Dominika Salkova of the Czech Republic.
Badosa is the biggest name still in the draw. Kostovic is already a round ahead of her.
What a first quarter-final is worth
A week like this counts differently for a teenager than for an established seed. Kostovic arrived in Brazil without a WTA quarter-final to her name and leaves the second round with one, plus the ranking points that come attached to it.
The rest of the bracket now has to compress several rounds into the days she has already banked. Whoever meets her in the last eight will get there having played more tennis this week than she has.
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